Keep 'Em Coming
by mosylu
Summary: After their return from Earth-2, Cisco's got a lot on his mind, on multiple fronts. Barry picks up the bar tab and listens.
(A/N) Written immediately after "Escape from Earth-2"

* * *

Barry gestured for a refill, and the bartender topped up his club soda and Cisco's whiskey. It had been a _long_ week.

Ever since their return from Earth-2, Barry had been consumed with doubt over whether to tell Iris about their doppelganger's lives (and also whether to mention that he'd, um, kind of made out with her, or other her, or - ugh. There weren't pronouns for this).

At the same time, haunted by Earth-2 Joe's death, he'd made a point of hanging out with his Joe every single night, until his foster father had practically kicked him out of the house - "Bare, son, I love you, but give me one damn evening alone!"

When he wasn't doing that, he'd been trying help Cisco and Caitlin as they picked through the research on the breaches day and night, trying to reverse-engineer one so they could break it open and go rescue Jay and the man in the mask.

Harry - well, Harry had Jessie back. Pretty much he didn't give a shit about anything else. Big surprise there.

Anyway. Except for Harry, they all looked haggard as hell.

And today, he and Iris had walked into Star Labs just in time to witness a screaming fight in the middle of the cortex.

Barry and Iris had exchanged one horrified look - Caitlin and Cisco fighting? Like, actually yelling at each other, not snarking, not grinning, not teasing, but full-on boiling with rage?

The world really was coming to an end.

Iris had dragged Caitlin away, and Barry had brought Cisco to the bar. Over their first drink, Cisco had admitted that the fight was over his continued inability to vibe onto Jay no matter how many articles of clothing or possessions he handled.

"But fuck, man. I'm trying."

"I know," Barry said, touching his shoulder. "We all know."

"And then I said maybe I should try the goggles and she went off on me."

Barry went cold. "Because the last time you tried those you nearly vibrated in between dimensions." The vision of his friend going fuzzy and transparent still haunted him sometimes.

"Yeah, well, probably I can reconfigure them so that doesn't - "

"Noooo, nope, nope, you just keep trying with your own self. We're not risking that again. Any of us. Even Caitlin."

Cisco sighed and kept drinking.

Over the course of the next two drinks, Cisco admitted that his time on Earth-2 had shaken him up. Seeing an evil doppelganger of his very own - "with stupid hair!" - and also seeing Ronnie's and Caitlin's evil doppelgangers, and then seeing two of the three of them die the way he himself had in an alternate timeline - well, that hadn't done either his waking or sleeping hours any favors.

"Why didn't you tell me this before?"

"We've got enough to deal with."

"You need to tell me these things!"

"I am now, dude."

The bartender came around again and didn't even need Barry's nod to refresh the drinks.

Cisco looked at his fresh drink as if it had appeared out of nowhere. "You think she's okay?"

"Caitlin?"

"Yeah."

"I dunno, man. This kind of crap - I mean, this is like the third time for her. I know we don't know that Jay is dead, but it doesn't look good. Like, god, could she get a break, please?"

"Jay? Why are you talking about Jay?"

"Because you're talking about Caitlin?"

"Ohhh. No. Sorry, man. I didn't mean Caitlin-Caitlin. I know she's not okay." His shoulders drooped momentarily. "But actually I meant other Caitlin."

"Wha - _Killer Frost?_ " His voice squeaked.

"Her name's still Caitlin."

"She's a supervillain!"

"I know that."

"She killed Joe! Other Joe."

When the bartender shot them a look of alarm, he said, "TV show," and gave a weak grin. "You know how nerd debates get."

"Actually Deathstorm killed Joe," Cisco pointed out, more quietly.

"She didn't exactly stop him."

"She helped hold off Zoom so we could escape."

"After she delivered you guys to him in the first place."

"Okay, fine. Yeah. I'll give you that one."

"She's not our Caitlin," Barry said.

Cisco set his drink down and looked him in the eye. "I seem to remember a guy yelling at me and Harry that Earth-2 Iris _was_ Iris, and you were gonna go help."

"That's … that … " Barry looked away. "Okay," he muttered.

"Dude," Cisco said. "I know, I know. She's not exactly on the side of the angels. But she's Caitlin. I can't make myself not care about her. It's Pavlovian or something. And you didn't see her in that forest. She was in pain. It was rolling off her. And yeah, she did double-cross us, but then she double-crossed him, and she said herself that she couldn't hold him off forever. What do you think he did to her when he got free?"

"I don't know," Barry said in a whisper. Zoom didn't seem to be a very forgiving boss.

"Right. Yeah. That's what I'm talking about."

"How do you do that?" Barry asked. "How do you look at somebody who's been the worst to you and see where they're hurting and want to help?"

"Character flaw, I guess," Cisco said, and finished his drink in silence.

Barry poked at the wedge of lime in his club soda. "You, uh, you could try to vibe on her."

"Don't have anything of hers. And I've been having enough trouble vibing on Jay." He tore a bar napkin in half, quarters, eighths, sixteenths. "What use is this if I can't manage it? If I can't help?"

"Hey," Barry said. "Reverb had it down, dude. That means it's possible for you to get these powers under control."

"Wow, man, you might have something there," Cisco said. "I just have to turn into a high-functioning sociopath in a leather jacket and guyliner."

"With stupid hair," Barry said.

"With _stupid_ hair."

FINIS


End file.
